Dalhuisen on Transnational Comparative, Commercial, Financial and Trade Law Volume 1: Introduction - The New Lex Mercatoria and its Sources

This is the fifth edition of the leading work on transnational and comparative commercial and financial law, covering a wide range of complex topics in the modern law of international commerce, finance and trade. As a guide for students and practitioners it has proven to be unrivalled. Since the fourth edition, the work has been divided into three volumes, each of which can be used independently or as part of the complete work. Volume one covers the roots and foundations of private law; the different orientations and structure of civil and common law; the concept, forces, and theoretical basis of the transnationalisation of the law in the professional sphere; the autonomous sources of the new law merchant or modern lex mercatoria, its largely finance-driven impulses; and its relationship to domestic public policy and public order requirements. Volume two deals with transnational contract, movable and intangible property law. Volume three deals with financial products and financial services, with the structure and operation of modern commercial and investment banks, and with financial risk, stability and regulation, including the fall-out from the recent financial crisis and regulatory responses in the US and Europe. All three volumes may be purchased separately or as a single set. From the reviews of previous editions: "...synthesizes and integrates diverse bodies of law into a coherent and accessible account...remarkable in its scope and depth. It stands alone in its field not only due to its comprehensive coverage, but also its original methodology. Although it appears to be a weighty tome, in fact, in light of its scope, it is very concise. While providing a wealth of intensely practical information, its heart is highly conceptual and very ambitious...likely to become a classic text in its field." American Journal of Comparative Law "Dalhuisen's style is relaxed...what he writes convinces without the need for an excess of references to sources...a highly valuable contribution to the legal literature. It adopts a useful, modern approach to teaching the young generation of lawyers how to deal with the increasing internationalisation of law. It is also helpful to the practising lawyer and to legislators." Uniform Law Review/Revue de Droit Uniforme "this is a big book, with big themes and an author with the necessary experience to back them up. ... Full of insights as to the theories that underlie the rules governing contract, property and security, it is an important contribution to the law of international commerce and finance." Law Quarterly Review "...presents a very different case: that of a civilized and cultivated cosmopolitan legal scholar, with a keen sense of international commercial and financial practice, with an in-depth grounding in both comparative legal history and comparative law, combined with the ability to transcend conventional English black-letter law description with critical judgment towards institutional wisdom and intellectual fashions. ...a wide-ranging, historically and comparatively very deep and comprehensive commentary, but which is also very contemporary and forward-looking on many or most of the issues relevant in modern transnational commercial, contract and financial transactions..." International and Comparative Law Quarterly